Magnitude 6.9 quake near the east coast of Honshu, Japan

Last updated: 2018-03-26 17:50:56 UTC

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The Anza group at the University of California San Diego operates a broadband seismograph network consisting of 17 three component broadband seismograph stations centered near Anza, California (see map).

On Monday, May 26th, 2003 at 09:24:31.000 we recorded a quake (preliminary mb 6.9) located near the east coast of Honshu, Japan.

View the most recent map of local events near San Diego or a slightly wider regional view of events recoded by ANZA, or a map of events recoded by ANZA from around the globe.

Initial source parameters for the recent event are shown below. The epicentral distance (distance separating the epicenter and the closest station in the recording network) for Anza is 8601 km (77.35 degrees).

This map shows the mainshock (red star) and any associated aftershocks (orange stars). Anza network stations are blue triangles.

Global mecator event map

Latitude	Longitude	Origin time (UTC)	Origin time (PDT)	Depth (km)	mb	Author
38.9300	141.5100	5/26/03 (146) 09:24	5/26/03 (146) 02:24	53	6.90*	orbassoc

* The location and magnitude determined for this event are preliminary and are subject to change upon further review of seismic data.

You may also view a plot showing

Of local interest:
We operate a broadband station on Mt. Soledad. At 09:36 (PDT) station SOL recorded the P wave from this event. Here is a view of that event as picked by our analyst. The pink "P" indicates a P wave arrival, the "S" indicates an S wave arrival.

3 component seismometer recordings at Soledad

View a larger image showing the waveforms recorded at Mt. Soledad.

A first hand account of the earthquake by a former UCSD physics graduate student

Disclaimer: We do not guarantee the authenticity of this account!

> Just wanted to let you know I'm ok.  We had a major earthquake roll 
> through Sendai last night at 6:24 PM local.  Magnitude 7.  No one 
> died, but 104 people were injured.  Some damage to roads and some 
> rockfalls in some parts north of here closer to the epicenter (95 km 
> to the northeast, near the coast), and there were two fires in 
> Sendai at private residences.  I was in my office when it started. 
> It seemed like the Hulk had gotten hold of our building and shook 
> the crap out of it.  "Rrrrrr, Hulk mad!!!!"  Fortunately, the 
> building codes have improved greatly since the 1978 Magnitude 7.5 
> earthquake that caused wide-spread damage and fires in Sendai.  So 
> most buildings stood strong.  And the building safety people had 
> been by two months ago to fasten all our free-standing shelves to 
> the walls and ceiling.  Otherwise, the place would have been a 
> wreck.  There were still a lot of books thrown on the floor of our 
> library.  Almost everyone from my research center is in Chiba (near!
> Tokyo, about 250 km from Sendai) attending a Joint Geophysical 
> Meeting this week, and when the camera crews showed up here, there 
> were no local experts to interview!  It was unnerving being in my 
> office during the quake.  Got under my desk and waited it out.  It's 
> not safe to run outside while things are still shaking.  A person 
> can get hit by falling window glass or bricks or metal trim.  Still 
> feeling aftershocks today, but the biggest one was at 12:44 AM last 
> night--Magnitude 4.8.  It woke me up.
>
> Of course, I can only be humorous about the quake after the fact.  I felt 
> pretty damn tense when the walls and floor were shaking, the drawers in my 
> desk rocked open, and empty plastic bottles were falling off my desk.  The 
> heavy shaking lasted a long time.  I'm glad no one died.
> Take care,
> Aaron

Visit the IRIS website with additional links to seismic data for this event.

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Learn more about the Anza group (including who works here, other networks, nuclear tests in China/India/Pakistan).
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URL: http://eqinfo.ucsd.edu/special_events/2003/146/a/index.php [Last updated: 2018-03-26 17:50:56 UTC]